This tri-layered composite allowed researchers to combine separate materials to provide mechanical strength and also promote new cell growth, not possible with existing vascular grafts, which are limited to a single or double… read more

Could lead to advancements in assistive technologies benefiting the disabled

February 3, 2015

University of Missouriresearchers have found evidence that the cerebellum portion of the brain may play a critical role in the complex network of brain functions involved in grasping. Their findings could lead to advancements in assistive technologies benefiting the disabled.

“For those with disabilities, assistive technologies, such as robotic arms or sensors inserted in the brain, make it possible to accomplish actions like grasping with… read more

February 3, 2015

Two New York University researchers have taken inspiration from avian locomotion strategies and created a pump that moves fluid using vibration instead of a rotor. Their results were published today (February 3) in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

“When we use a household pump, that pump is very likely a centrifugal pump. It uses a high-speed rotor… read more

February 2, 2015

A recent study by neuroscientists offers clues about how increasingly difficult tasks have evolved the brain.

They created a video game similar to the old video game Tetris, in which programmed artificial adaptive agents (“animats”) have to “catch” moving blocks of different sizes before the blocks reach the bottom (in a game for humans, that might be done by pressing right or left cursor keys).… read more

February 2, 2015

A team of astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia and NASA’s Deep Space Network radar transmitter at Goldstone, California, has made the most detailed radar images yet of asteroid 2004 BL86.

The images, taken early in the morning on Jan. 27, 2015, reveal the asteroid’s surface features in unprecedented clarity. At the time of the observations, the asteroid was traveling away from the Earth, so… read more

January 30, 2015

Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have used new deep-brain imaging techniques to link the activity of individual, genetically similar neurons to particular behaviors of freely moving mice.

For the first time ever, scientists watched as one neuron was activated when a mouse searched for food while a nearly identical neuron next to it remained inactive; instead, the second neuron only became activated when the mouse began… read more

January 30, 2015

MIT scientists have developed a new method of coping with the complexity of studying the brain.

They created probes containing biocompatible multipurpose fibers about 85 micrometers in width (about the width of a human hair).

The new fibers can deliver optogenetic signals and drugs directly into the brain, while allowing simultaneous electrical readout to continuously monitor the effects of the various inputs from freely moving mice.… read more

Could be used as scaffolding for tissue engineering or growing photovoltaics

January 29, 2015

Researchers at UC Davis and Rice University have developed methods to manipulate natural proteins so that they self-assemble into amyloid fibrils.*

“These are big proteins with lots of flat surfaces suitable for functionalization, for example to grow photovoltaics or to attach to other surfaces,” said Dan Cox, a physics professor at UC Davis and coauthor on the paper. The fibers could also be used… read more

January 29, 2015

A team of physicists at the University of California, Riverside has found an ingenious way to induce magnetism in graphene while also preserving graphene’s electronic properties (conducting electricity).

They accomplished this by bringing a graphene sheet very close to yttrium iron garnet, a “magnetic insulator” (an electrical insulator with magnetic properties).*

January 28, 2015

Their idea is to coax human pluripotent stem cells to become dermal papilla cells — a unique population of cells that regulate hair-follicle formation and growth cycle. (Human dermal papilla cells on their own are… read more

January 27, 2015

A large study links a significantly increased risk for developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, to taking commonly used medications with anticholinergic effects at higher doses or for a longer time.

Many older people take these medications, which include nonprescription diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and related drugs.

January 27, 2015

University of Vermont assistant professor of mathematics education Carmen Petrick Smith has found in a study that elementary school students who interacted with a Kinect for Windows mathematics program while learning geometry showed significant gains in the understanding of angles and angle measurements.

The Kinect is a motion sensor input device that allows people to interact with computers based on their natural movements. Hmm, imagine what… read more